Backstory:
Max Tolzen comes from an industrial family. However, during his early childhood, he showed far more interest in the inner workings of machines, rather than the factory operation that his father believed was the family's business. Things came to a sort of head between the two when Victor left for college, and there's not been any contact between Max and his family since.
During his first semester at Ark City University, Max seemed to merely be going through the motions in his engineering classes, even as he breezed through them. As it came time to plan his next semester's classes, one of the other students he knew, one Richard Taswell, suggested to Max that he switch tracks, and look into biochemistry, with an eye towards pharmaceuticals. Max eventually decided to add a few of those classes to his load, and by his third semester, he had decided to make the switch.
During his new classes, Max became lab partners with Taswell, as well as friendly rivals. That all exploded, literally, one day as a lab experiment went wrong. Initially, Max was blamed for it and expelled from the University. It seemed at first like the elder Tolzen had been vindicated. However, some days later, after Max had been discharged from the hospital, he happened to overhear a phone conversation that seemed to indicate that Taswell had set up the "accident" to cover his own departure from the University... a departure triggered by Richard joining up with the VIPER Organization.
His initial efforts in finding evidence to clear his name did not go well at all... In part due to a total lack of any form of equipment, special abilities, or even serviceable disguise. He quickly fell into a minor depression, and began wandering the city... Eventually ending up in the Eastern District, out past the Chimney. It was there that he stumbled across a hidden entrance to a ruined bunker. After exploring the accessible part, he found bits and pieces of power armor suits, and other gear... All bearing the markings of VIPER. Seeing an amusing twist of using their own abandoned equipment against VIPER, Max turned some of his savings to the task of quietly gathering supplies, and he slowly began repairing and refurbishing the bunker into a base of sorts, while at the same time re-purposing the cast-off bits and developing his own components. A slight twist left him with an idea of hiding the appearance of his armor behind the costume of a Plague Doctor, and Max's "mask" was finally finished.
Now better equipped, Max was able to make headway in his mission. Further efforts scored a Pulson micro-reactor, as well as nano-factories for his armor, removing the need for multiple "clips" for his offensive systems. Eventually, Max was able to find the evidence to clear himself of blame for the accident, although Taswell managed to leave the area before he could be captured. During his investigation, though, Max sometimes received mysterious aid... Something that troubles him, as he often finds himself wondering who, or what, was helping him.
In addition, since clearing his name, Max has opened a tech repair shop in the Central District of Ark City, near the river. Much of his workload is assisting in minor repairs of equipment from the manufacturers in the Western District.
Personality:
Max seems a very quiet and reserved person, normally. The kind of person that would be happier working on some piece of technology or some chemical problem, in fact. For the most part, that image is correct. However, he has been noted as opening up more to those he becomes friends with, or as he gets to know someone better. After that point, he'll start getting a bit more talkative, even cracking a few jokes... bad though they might be.
While "in the field", his reserved, observant side becomes more pronounced, although that might just be him trying to adjust to his new role, as well as a psychological side-effect of having what amounts to a personal cloaking device.
Much of his quiet and reticence at forming personal relationships can be traced back to the events that motivate him as a hero... A drive to punish Taswell and his VIPER allies for the accident. However, as he's gone about his "work", Max is starting to realize that there's more he can be doing aside from just trying to go after his "main" targets.
Appearance:
In his "civilian" clothes, Max readily seems to fit the "ordinary white guy" description, with the only remarkable elements of his appearance being his full, yet neatly trimmed beard and his similarly neatly groomed hair. A closer look at him, particularly his face, reveals some faded burn scars, likely from the lab accident.
The suit of armor that he wears while "in the field" is a relatively stream-lined suit. Max has taken care to redesign all of the outer surfaces of the scavenged pieces to remove the original VIPER detailing on it, and has painted the whole thing in a dark blue scheme with several dark grey patches. The helmet of the suit has an attached visor with red optics which can be raised via a chin-operated control. The vambraces of the suit each contain a pair of systems: a variable payload "canister launcher", the ammo for which operates similar to miniature grenade launchers, and a variable payload "injector system", which allows Max to extend syringe-like attachments from his forearms over the backs of his hands. Over the suit, he wears a long black overcoat with a tall collar, a black wide-brimmed hat and hood, and a brown plague doctor-style mask.
![[Sc8]Hardware](/data/avatars/m/84/84306.jpg?1525133741){kind=avatar}
